An Ongoing Process of Art and Stuff by John Everett Morton

The Keen List

Art & Artists

Mincing Mockingbird & Frantic Meerkat: Two artists doing their own things together. He paints birds with irreverent titles and she paints portraits of found photographs and makes collages. The Frantic Meerkat is good about posting works in progress on Facebook and Instagram.

Screwball Press: Steve is a screen print artist in Chicago. If you’re in the area he’ll introduce you to the craft. If you’re anywhere else and can make clean separations, he’ll screen print your stuff. I know this because he’s done both for me.

Music

Last.fm: This scrobbling service keeps track of what you listen to on your computer, phone, or iPod using the free application. In other countries (like the UK) you can stream free music, too. Clicking this link will take you to my profile where you can spy on my music listening habits.

Soundcloud: This site lets musicians post music and stuff. I’m not as eager to share musical works in progress as visual ones, but you can hear a few of my demos here.

Third Man Records: I’m a huge fan of all things Jack White and always glad to learn about the crazy things going on at his record label.

Miscellaneous

Ali Spagnola: Ali is an artist and musician. I first encountered her online through her free paintings project where she paints one painting a day and gives it away (I have one of the DeLorean from Back to the Future). The wait list is now seven years long. She also does one-woman covers of popular tunes on YouTube in addition to her original music. And her shoes never match.

Brain Pickings: This site is curated by writer Maria Popova who aptly uses the term “interestingness gatherer” to describe herself. The articles shared touch on a wide range of topics (philosophy, art, science) or more simply in her words “an inquiry into how to live and what it means to lead a good life.” I don’t visit everyday, but keep tabs through the e-mail list and Twitter.